A look at the winners of Nobel Prize in medicine

Americans James E. Rothman, 62, professor of biomedical sciences at Yale University; Randy W. Schekman, 64, professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Berkeley; and German-born Thomas C. Sudhof, 57, professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University.

FOR WHAT?

For their discoveries of how hormones, enzymes and other key materials are transported within cells, a process known as "vesicle traffic."

SIGNIFICANCE

The discovery solves the mystery of how animal cells organize their internal transportation system to direct molecules to the correct place.

This helps explain how certain illnesses, including diabetes, tetanus and many immune diseases, work.

WHAT THEY SAID:

James E. Rothman: "This is not an overnight thing. Most of it has been accomplished and developed over many years, if not decades."

Randy W. Schekman: "As far as my lab goes, I was excited about what we were doing yesterday and will be excited about the work we are doing tomorrow."

Thomas C. Sudhof: "At least in the United States, which is now my home, there is a lot of soul-searching about the sense of science. And I hope and believe that I can do a little bit to help clarify the positions."